Stone Soup Weekly Flash Contest Winners’ Roll

Flash contest #21: Write a poem about your favorite place to be The week commencing August 17th (Daily Creativity Prompt #106) was our twenty-first week of Flash Contests. The prompt asked our entrants to write a poem about their favorite place to be. The over-fifty entries we received ranged from poetry about the comfort of one’s own room, to vacation spots in Hawaii, to family homes, to the peacefulness of nature, and much more! We greatly enjoyed reading all of the entries we received, as well as the happy feeling that accompanied them. Well done to all of our entrants; and a special congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. Read on past the list of winners to experience the Winners’ work for yourself! Winners Hawaii by Analise Braddock, 9 (Katonah, NY) My Favorite Place To Be by Georgia Marshall, 11 (Marblehead, MA) Cherish the Temporary by Reagan Ricker, 13 (Coto de Caza, CA) My Favorite People by Chloe Song, 12 (Lexington, MA) A Place Yet To Be by Anushka Trivedi, 10 (Silver Spring, MD) Honorable Mentions In the Mountains by Quinn Peacock Brush, 10 (Denver, CO) The Observation Deck by Nicholas Buckley, 13 (Wilmington, MA) Winter in my Bed Nova Macknik-Conde, 8 (Brooklyn, NY) My Room by Julia Marcus, 13 (Culver City, CA) Perfect For Me by April Yu, 12 (East Brunswick, NJ) Hawaii Analise Braddock, 9 Where sunscreen is your friend, Smells of salt and coconut invade your nose, Crish, crash goes the waves as you ...

Flash Contest #20: Write a poem inspired by a song. The week commencing August 10th (Daily Creativity Prompt #101) was our twentieth week of Flash Contests. The prompt asked our entrants to write a poem inspired by a song they’ve been listening to a lot. The entries we received ranged from poetry set to the tune of a certain song, poetry inspired by a theme of a song, poetry inspired by classical music, contemporary music, musicals, and even our entrants' own musical compositions. We greatly enjoyed reading the many entries we received; well done to everyone who submitted to this prompt, and a special congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below.  Read on past the list of placed entries to experience the Winners’ work for yourselves! Winners Satisfied by Savannah Black, 9 (Yuba City, CA) First Flight by Fern Hadley, 12 (Cary, NC) Requiem by Joyce Hong, 10 (Oakville, ON) Mendelssohn's Voices by Eric Liang, 13 (Sherborn, MA) Last Night by Daniel Wei, 13 (Weddington, NC) Honorable Mentions The Lovely Birds by Nova Macknik-Conde, 8 (Brooklyn, NY) Christmas Carols by Ashvant Daniel, 11 (Portland, OR) Mad World 2020 by Emma Hoff, 8 (Bronx, NY) The King of the Snow by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) Dance Monkey by Sophie Yu, 12 (Houston, TX) Satisfied Savannah Black, 9 I am never satisfied There is always another step to climb Another home run to hit Another goal to score Another painting to paint Another checkmate to you Another chore to do Another essay to write And ...

Flash contest #19: Write a backwards story The week commencing August 3 (Daily Creativity Prompt #96) was our nineteenth week of flash contests, with a prompt that asked our entrants to write a story that goes backwards. The entries we received covered a broad range of topics, from family to animals to weather to space travel to time travel to friendship, and much more, even including a few poems. We greatly enjoyed reading all of the entries we received, and loved how the plots of the stories were slowly revealed as they traveled backwards. Well done to all of our entrants for taking on the difficult task of telling a story backwards, and particular congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. Read on past the list of winners to experience the Winners’ work for yourselves. Winners The Project by Katie Bergsieker, 12 (Denver, CO) Surprise by Scarlet He, 9 (Scarsdale, NY) Once and For All by Joyce Hong, 10 (Oakville, ON) This Day Has Come Too Soon by Ella Pierce, 12 (Hudson, WI) Sea of Souls by Daniel Wei, 13 (Weddington, NC) Honorable Mentions Jewish Friend, Backwards End by Becca Jacobson, 11 (Montclair, NJ) Falling by Vaishnavi Kumbala, 12 (Metairie, LA) The Irrefusable Offer by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) On Top of the World by Mihika Sakharpe, 11 (Frisco, TX) Last Thoughts by Ismini Vasiloglou, 11 (Atlanta, GA/Athens, Greece) The Project Katie Bergsieker, 12 “Sophie! Thank goodness you’re here! Look!” my best friend Kylie cries, pointing. I ...

Flash Contest #18: Use a classic opening line as a starting point. The week commencing July 27 (Daily Creativity Prompt #91) was our eighteenth week of flash contests, and produced a lot of entries. Our entrants took the opening words of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, in all sorts of creative directions. The pieces we received ranged from stories about extreme weather, to family and family history, and to some introspective narratives. We immensely enjoyed reading all of the writing we received; well done to everyone for your work on this challenge, and especially to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. Read on after the list of winners to enjoy the winners’ work for yourselves. Winners Wash the World Away by Fern Hadley, 11 (Cary, NC) Streaks by Rachel Feldman, 10 (Narberth, PA) My Manderley by Anna Haakenson, 12 (Beach Park, IL) A Letter by Shuyin Liu, 8 (Kirkland, WA) Pour Your Heart Into the Sink by Alice Xie, 12 (West Windsor, NJ) Honorable Mentions No Possibility by Katherine Bergsieker, 12 (Denver, CO) The Light Will Come Through Again by Sneha Jiju, 12 (Chandler, AZ) Dream and Dream More... by Prisha Aswal, 7 (Portland, OR) In the Kitchen Sink by Allie Dollar, 11 (Monticello, FL) Deadly Heat Wave by Nishil KC, 10 (Chantilly, VA) Wash the World Away Fern Hadley, 11 Like Mom quoted Jane Eyre a few times: “There was no possibility of taking a walk that ...

Flash contest #16: Write about a character waiting for something, but don’t reveal what they’re waiting for until the end. The week commencing July 20th (Daily Creativity prompt #86) was our seventeenth week of flash contests, with a challenge set by former contributor Ana Rowell, 15, who also helped us judge this week's contest. Thank you, Anna! This prompt produced lots of entries, all of them filled with suspense. You obviously all had fun structuring your stories to keep us guessing about what we were waiting for, and even who or what it was that was waiting (animal, vegetable or mineral)! Our favourites kept us waiting until the end to find out what was really going on; and made us go back to the beginning to pick up the subtle hints we might not have piked up first time. Well done everyone for your work on this challenge, and especially to our winners and honorable mentions, listed below. Read on after the list of winners to enjoy the winners' work for yourselves. Winners "Stalling" by Sophia Do, 12 (Lititz, PA) "Rain" by Kyler Min, 9 (Vienna, VA) "Waiting for a Comet" by Madeline Sornson, 13 (La Jolla, CA) "From the Other Side of the Road" by Amruta Krishnan Srinivasan, 9 (San Jose, CA) "Wait for it . . ." by Ian Xie, 12 (Weston, MA) Honorable Mention "The Waiting Game" by Elsa N. Ahern, 10 (Winnetka, IL) "The Waiting Hill" by Liam Hancock, 12 (Danville, CA) "Cats of War and Peace" by ...

Flash contest #16: Write an unsettling poem Create a poem with an eerie or creepy tone. You can make the poem as nonsensical or as relatable as possible, but retain the sense of being unsettled throughout. The week commencing July 13th (Daily Creativity prompt #81) was our sixteenth week of flash contests, with a sinister challenge set by contributor and writing workshop member Liam Hancock, 13. It seems everyone had plenty of scary stuff to get out of their systems–we had an absolute record number of entries this week: more than 70! Well done Liam for setting such a terrifically inspiring challenge, and thank you for all your work helping us read and judge our huge pile. It was really fun working with you. We were looking for the creepiest, most unsettling poems for our winners' list, and we certainly found them! While all our winners had slightly different subjects, all of them built tension through their poems to a frankly terrifying end; and they showed us that while sinister, creepy, eerie things often come at night, these feelings can be evoked in broad daylight, too. The honorable mentions were equally varied, moving between suspense, nightmares, death, unexplained disappearances–and even managing to make a butterfly into something sinister.  Well done, everyone. Also, there were a few entries that didn't place in the contest, but which we will share with everyone on our COVID-19 blog in the coming weeks–well done to Samson Brown, 13; Madi Frank, 11; Eleanor Levy, 8; Lucas Lin, ...

Flash contest #15: Write a story or poem inspired by a Renoir painting. The week commencing July 6 (Daily Creativity Prompt #76) was our fifteenth week of flash contests, with a prompt that took us back to the scene of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette. Our entrants wrote a story or poem inspired by Renoir’s painting this week. We received more entires than we expected, and, as always, enjoyed reading all of the writings that were submitted. It was fun to see how differently many of you approached imagining going into the scene in the painting: the judges read everything from mystery stories to poems written from the perspective of the lamps in the trees (a couple of our Highly Commended choices)! One of our winning writers this week also sent an updated version of the painting, apparently made for her by Renoir himself, to go with her story (thanks, Ruby!). Well done to all of our entrants, and particular congratulations to all of our Winners and Honorable Mentions! See below for all of their names, and keep reading to experience the writing created by our winners. Winners “The Brendon Disappointment” by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH “Paris in a Painting” by Fern Hadley, 11, Cary, NC “Let There Be Cake!” by James Hou, 10, Short Hills, NJ “Summer Day” by Samuel McMullin, 10, Portland, ME “A Taste of Bal du Moulin de la Galette” & its illustration "Travelling back to Moulin de la Galette," ...

Weekly Flash Contest #14: Write a poem or a story where a sudden change in the weather provides a pivotal point. The week commencing June 29th (Daily Creativity prompt #71) was our fourteenth week of flash contests–and we would not have guessed so many of you would be inspired by the weather! We had a record number of entries (more than 50 this week), and we were, as usual, very impressed. Everyone brought to life various weather events–from blizzards to rainstorms–in varying forms–from poems (including concrete poems) to prose. The judges had a hard time battling through all those changes in temperature, but in the end we emerged, windswept and drenched, into the warm sunshine of decisions made. Well done to everyone who entered, but particular congratulations to those who made it with us through the storm as Honorable Mentions and Winners. See below for all their names, and read the whole blog post to experience the weather conjured up by our top-placed winners. Winners "Cabin Catastrophe" by Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA "Michi and Kieto" by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH "Transformation" by Sofie Dardzinski, 9, Potomac, MD "A Line of Cars" by Wesley Moniz, 9, Belmont, MA "The Hotel of Angels" by Emerson Swift, 12, Mill Valley, CA Honorable Mention "The Flower's Lesson" by Audrey Fan, 10, Cary, NC "Driftwood on the Sea" by Meleah Goldman, 10, Oakland, CA "Rain" by Misha Nasarpuri, 12, Portland, OR "Rose After Rain" by Amruta Krishnan Srinivasan, 9, San Jose, CA "The ...

Weekly Flash Contest #13: Some of the earliest novels were written in the form of letters between characters ("epistolary novels"). Try writing a story as a series of text messages, group chats, emails, letters or postcards exchanged between at least two characters. The week commencing June 22nd (Daily Creativity prompt #66) was our thirteenth week of flash contests, with a challenge taking us back to one of the earliest forms of the novel: stories told through letters, or "epistolary novels". Our entrants had the option to bring the form up to date using today's equivalent of the letter (text messages, group chats etc.), or to take themselves back in time with more formal writing evocative of a past age. The form was no limitation on the imagination shown in the stories these messages between character told. We loved reading the many entries, that came in, and thank you all for participating. Special congratulations to this week's Winners and Honorable Mentions. Your work really stood out for its creative response and playfulness! You can read this week's winners' work below, and the all winning entries from previous weeks on the Flash Contest Winners Roll page. Winners “Letters to the President" by Prisha Aswal, 7, Portland, OR "Child of Magic" by Amelia Pozzo, 11, Arnold, MO "Apocalypse" by Ian Xie, 12, Weston, MA "Black and White" by Ella Yamamura, 12, Cary, NC "The Excuse" by Michela You, 11, Lexington, MA Honorable Mention "Well that escalated quickly..." by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH "Venus ...

Weekly Flash Contest #12: What would the world be like without color? What if there were a few select people who could see colors? Write about the effects of not being able to see color, or of there being no color, and how that affects people and society in a good or bad way . . . The week commencing June 15th (Daily Creativity prompt #61) was our twelfth week of flash contests, with an intriguing challenge set by former contributor, Anna Rowell, 15. This is a prompt that got a lot of people's juices flowing! Anna joined us on the judging panel, and with her help and thoughtful advice we managed to work our way through a wide and strong field of entries. Well done to everyone who sent an entry in: you did not make it easy for us to decide. In particular, thank you, Anna, for your help, and for a fantastic flash contest prompt–we look forward to doing it again sometime! Congratulations to our Winners and Honorable Mentions, listed below. Your work really stood out in an extra competitive field! You can read the winning entries for this week (and previous weeks) at the Stone Soup website. Winners “Seeing Through Gray” by Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA “It's All Ridiculous” by Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH “Flowers for Mamma” by Sophia Do, 12, Lititz, PA “The Sky is Blue” by Nora Heiskell, 12, Philadelphia, PA “Project Achromatopsia” by Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mention “Miya's Gift” by Savannah Black, ...

Weekly Flash Contest #11: Draw a Blind Self Portrait The week commencing June 8th (Daily Creativity prompt #56) was our eleventh week of flash contests, and our second art contest. We set the fun challenge of making a blind self portrait, where you put pencil to paper and draw your portrait in a single line without lifting it again, and without looking at the paper. It is an even harder task than it sounds! We had so much fun looking at your entries, even though there were slightly fewer than usual: perhaps our artists are shyer than we thought, and didn't want to share their results... (I know the Stone Soup team wasn't keen on sharing theirs!) We congratulate all the brave souls that put pencils to paper and sent us their portraits. We think they are great, and that everyone will enjoy comparing the beautiful lines of the portraits with the photos of the winners below. Well done to all of them, and to our two very Honorable Mentions. Winners Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA Zoe Campbell, 10, San Francisco, CA Story Kummer, 13, St. Louis, MO Olivia Titus, 11, Houston, TX Sophie Yu, 12, Houston, TX Honorable Mentions Michelle Dollar, 11, Monticello, FL Ruby Xu, 10, Annandale, VA My Mind's Eyesabel Isabel Bashaw, 10 Blind Contour Self Portrait Zoe Campbell, 10 Self-portrait Blind Contour Drawing Story Kummer, 13 Portrait of Sadness Olivia Titus, 11 Blind Contour Self Portrait Sophie Yu, 12 ...

Weekly Flash Contest #10: Write down 5 ideas for some impossible characters – space frogs, singing clocks, walking cactuses – the more unlikely the better. Pick 2 of them. What would happen if they met? Write a story about it. The week commencing June 1st (Daily Creativity prompt #51) was our tenth week of flash contests, and our entrants rose to the double challenge of inventing some crazily impossible characters, and putting them together in bizarre situations. Well done everyone for your wildly creative stories and ideas! This was such a strange and fascinating group to choose from, that we found it just too hard to narrow down the number to share with you. So, this week we have 6 winners, whose work is published below, and 4 very honorable Honorable Mentions. Congratulations to them all! Winners Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH Federico Lynch Ferraris, 11, New York, NY Lila Laton, 10, New York, NY Tilly Marlow, 10, Bristol, United Kingdom Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mentions "Enchanted Woods" (story and drawing) by Amelia Barth, 10, Elgin, IL "The Mathematician and the Songstress (A Story Told from 2 Points of View)" by Anna Haakenson, 12, Beach Park, IL "Polka Dots" by Samantha Lee, 10, Thomaston, CT "The Eerie Cat-Man Thief and the Gucci Bunny" by Daniel Wei, 13, Weddington, NC Zombie Unicorn vs. Tap-Dancing Carrot Cake Isabel Bashaw, 10 It was Independence Day in the magical land of Mystic Topia, and a parade celebrating the town's freedom from ...

Weekly Flash Contest #9: Write a mystery story. Think about the arc of your story, and plan out the actions and motives of the characters. Does the reader know something the characters don’t, or is the reader in the dark until the end? Think about how the mystery might unfold for the different characters and for your readers. The week commencing May 25th (Daily Creativity prompt #46) was our ninth week of flash contests, with another record number of entries. It was also the second contest based on Stone Soup contributor and reader Anya Geist's writing prompt, which meant that we got to work with her again to judge the contest. Anya's prompt inspired a really terrific batch of entries, and all the judges were impressed with the diverse ways in which the entrants approached the idea of writing "a mystery". Thank you, Anya, for wise judging and for setting a great writing challenge! We are delighted to announce this week's 5 Winners, whose work is published below, and 5 Honorable Mentions. It was a real pleasure to read so much great work. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA Nick Buckley, 12, Needham, MA Liam Hancock, 12, Danville, CA Enni Harlan, 13, Los Angeles, CA Michelle Su, 13, Sudbury, MA Honorable Mention “The Stolen Emerald” by Amelia Barth, 10, Elgin, IL “Summer Sleuths” by Amelia Pozzo, 11, Arnold, MO “The Checkered Deerstalker” by Mihika Sakharpe, 11, Frisco, TX “The Missing Jewels”  by Sophia ...

Weekly Flash Contest #8: Write about what super-heroes and super-villains do in their spare time or on their days off. Feel free to make it funny: maybe Voldemort enjoys yoga, or Wonder Woman writes a blog. The week commencing May 18th (Daily Creativity prompt #41) was our eighth week of flash contests, with another record number of entries. It was also the second contest based on Stone Soup contributor and reader Molly Torinus's writing prompt, which meant that we got to work with her again to judge the contest. Thank you Molly, for your great idea that inspired such a range of entries, and for your wise decisions and enthusiasm in the judging process! This week, we are announcing our 5 Winners, whose work is published below, plus 5 Honorable Mentions. We also unexpectedly received a few art entries responding to the writing prompt, and we have chosen one of those as a special Honorable Mention for art, too. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Enni Harlan, 13, Los Angeles, CA Julianna Muzyczyszyn, 13, Warsaw, Poland Lucy Berberich, 11, Oxford, OH Samuel McMullin, 10, Portland, ME Sophie Yu, 12, Houston, TX Honorable Mention (writing) “Captain America's ‘Normal’ Day” by Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ "A Day With Voldemort” by Yutia Li, 11, Houston, TX “A smell of burning” by Daniel Shorten, 9, Mallow, Ireland “Batgirl's Day Off” by Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA “Super Hero Hobbies” by Em Jay, 10, Austin, TX Honorable Mention (art) "Super Zoom!" ...

Weekly Flash Contest #7: Be a time traveler in reverse! What would happen if a character from the past arrived in the present? Choose a time period you like and know a little bit about, and write down at least 3 things that make it really different to now. Now imagine that someone your age and your gender has arrived in your house from that time in the past. Use your list of differences to write a story about what happens during the day you spend together. The week commencing May 11th (Daily Creativity prompt #36) was our seventh week of flash contests, with another record number of entries including one from our youngest-ever Flash Contest entrant! We had fun meeting time travellers from different eras from ancient history (even dinosaurs!) to the present (yes, some time travel was projected into the future–it's complicated!), and it was even harder than usual to choose our favourites. We commend all of the entrants for their imagination, and for the creative ways they found to bring their characters from the past into life in the present using clothes, language and misunderstandings about contemporary everyday life to make them real. This week, we are announcing our 5 Winners, whose work is published below, plus 5 Honorable Mentions. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Isabel Bashaw, 10, Enumclaw, WA Samson Brown, 12, Cary, NC Ava Shorten, 10, Mallow, Ireland Michela You, 11, Lexington, MA Xuyi (Lauren) Zheng, 10, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Honorable Mentions ...

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Weekly Flash Contest #6: Draw or paint a scene from a book you are reading, or have read. The week commencing May 4th (Daily Creativity prompt #31) was our sixth week of flash contests–and our second Takeover! This time, Anya Geist, age 13, from Worcester, MA, took over the Daily Creativity prompts for the week, including some really great art prompts as well as some writing ideas. As always in our takeover weeks, Anya joined the Stone Soup team as one of the Flash Contest judges. To remind you of the process–each judge evaluates the entries independently, the judges' scores are tallied, and we meet via Zoom to agree on our final lists of winners and honorable mentions. There were a lot of entries this week, and a large number of really beautiful artworks for us to look at. Luckily the judges had very similar views when they awarded their scores, so it wasn't too difficult to agree on the results (though we can't say it was all that easy with such a lot of great work to choose from!). Anya had set you a great challenge, and she had some very considered and insightful feedback on the entries. It was a real pleasure to work with her on this contest. Thank you, Anya! This week, we are announcing our 5 Winners, whose work is published below, plus 5 Honorable Mentions. We were so impressed by the different media used, and the creative approaches you all took. Congratulations, everyone! Winners ...

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Weekly Flash Contest #5: Write a story inspired by one of these funny headlines Visit the Bestlifeonline.com webpage, and read their selection of the “25 Funniest Newspaper Headlines of All Time.” Write a story inspired by your chosen headline. Every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements we are running a Flash Contest, based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, and entries are due by Friday. The week commencing April 27th (Daily Creativity prompt #26) was our fifth week–and our funniest! Everyone obviously needed to get some comedy into their lives, and we had a record number of entries. We enjoyed reading each and every one of them, but a few of them made all of us laugh out loud, so they are our winners this week: published below, they come in every shade of humour from light to dark, and they are all hilarious. We also have a few Honorable Mentions singled out for special recognition. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Eliana Aschheim, 13, Santa Clara, CA Gabe Finger, 13, Nesconset, NY Hannah Nami Gajcowski, 10, Bellevue, WA Liam Hancock, 12, Danville, CA Alice Xie, 12, West Windsor, NJ Honorable Mentions "An Un-MOO-rited Act" by Lena Aloise, 10, Harvard, MA "Diary of a Goat Robbery - From the Goatś Perspective" by Cora Casebeer, 10, Salem, OR "The Scientist Who Blamed the Babies" by Samantha Lee, 10, Thomaston, CT Remember, we are running the Flash Contest every week during ...

Weekly Flash Contest #4: Write a Poem About a Found Object in your Kitchen Go into the kitchen. Stand in front of a cupboard with food in it (or the fridge). Close your eyes, open the door (or better still, have someone else open it for you), stretch out your hand, and touch something. Keep your hand where it is. Open your eyes. Look at the thing you are touching. Congratulations! You just found the object that you are going to write a poem about. Every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements we are running a Flash Contest, based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, and entries are due by Friday. The week commencing April 20th (Daily Creativity prompt #21) was our fourth week, and our food theme really got everyone's creative juices flowing! You obviously had fun finding your food objects, and thinking of creative ways to write about them. We enjoyed reading each and every one of the entries, and it was just as difficult as ever to choose our top 5 this week–so difficult, in fact, that we chose 7, and we added some Honorable Mentions again. Congratulations, everyone! Winners (work published on this page) Eliana Aschheim, 13, Santa Clara, CA Iris Fink, 8, Beloit, WI Enni Harlan, 13, Los Angeles, CA Julia Marcus, 13, Culver City, CA Ava Shorten, 10, Mallow, Ireland Adele Stamenov, 10, Bethel Park, PA Emerson Swift, 12, Mill Valley, CA ...

Weekly Flash Contest #3: Write from the Point of View of an Animal Write about a day in the life of your pet or a friend’s pet, as if you were that pet. Remember to think about what it might be like to be an animal. How do they see the world? What do they think about humans and their fellow animals? What are their hopes, their dreams, their fears? This is a great exercise in point of view. The week commencing April 13th was a very special week for our Daily Creativity series. We had a takeover, by one of our readers, Molly Torinus, age 11, from Middleton, WI! Molly is a volunteer in our COVID-19 Focus Group, and she wrote a whole series of terrific writing prompts for us. When we planned her takeover, we all agreed that this prompt, challenging everyone to write from the point of view of an animal (Daily Creativity prompt #16), would be a great one to set as the contest. You all seemed to think so too, as we had a record number of entries! We were thrilled that Molly also joined the Stone Soup team to be one of this week's judges. Once the contest closed at the end of last week we all read the entries independently, and gave them our own scores. Then, we put the 3 judges' scores together to come up with a shortlist, and had a Zoom meeting to discuss it and agree the final results. It's ...

Weekly Flash Contest #2: How has COVID-19 affected your daily life so far? What has changed, and what is still the same? Which changes are positive, and which negative? What makes you most anxious when thinking about it? Most hopeful? Is there a particular experience that represents the change to your life most clearly? Write a 300-500-word blog post exploring these questions and examining your experiences so far. Every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements we are running a Flash Contest, based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, and entries are due by Friday. The week commencing April 6th (Daily Creativity prompt #11) was our second week, and we received a huge number of entries from all over the world: from Singapore, India, Poland, Switzerland, Canada and the United States. We are so proud of our international family of young writers, and we congratulate every one of you who wrote so honestly, clearly, and beautifully about your experiences of COVID-19 so far. We enjoyed reading each and every one of the entries, and it was even more difficult than before to choose our top 5 this week–so difficult, in fact, that we chose 6! PLUS, we have decided to publish some of the other entries separately on our COVID-19 Blog, as well! In alphabetical order, our winners this week, whose work you can read on this page, are: Lena Aloise, 10, Harvard, MA Eliana Aschheim, 13, ...

Weekly Flash Contest #1: Write a story told completely through dialogue. How do you communicate the differences between characters? How can you make sure that the reader knows what is going on? Can you make action part of natural-sounding speech? Every week during the COVID-19-related school closures and shelter-in-place arrangements we are running a Flash Contest, based on the first Daily Creativity prompt of the week. The prompt is posted on Monday, and entries are due by Friday. The week commencing March 30th was our first week, and we were delighted by how many of you sent us your work–congratulations to every single one of you for responding so creatively, and for sending us your dialogues. We enjoyed reading each and every one of the entries, and it wasn't easy to pick a selection of 5 as this week's winners. But we did it! And they are (in alphabetical order): Eliana Aschheim, 13, Santa Clara, CA Liam Hancock, 12, Danville, CA Gabe Horowitz, 10, Bethesda, MD Matthew-Seungho Jeong, 13, Houston, TX Kat Werth, 10, Bethesda, MD Congratulations to all of them! Visit this page to refer back to the contest prompt, and read on to see what our winners wrote. "Barsem’s Pigeons" by Eliana Aschheim, 13, Santa Clara, CA “Ooh, that looks cool. Natalie, can we go over to that cute temple over there?” “Sure, Eleanor, but no one’s inside. I don’t think it’s open.” “We can check.” “I don’t think it’s closed. I mean, the lights are on and ...